More Permits, Please

Nine thousand aspiring vendors are on the waiting list for one of New York City’s 3,100 mobile food permits. By setting the caps far below vendor supply and public demand, the city unintentionally creates a thriving and exploitative black market, where aspiring vendors "rent" permits from illegal middlemen. Other vendors are driven underground, where they’re unlicensed and unregulated. Raising the caps to realistic levels would help bring vendors out of the shadows and into the legal mainstream.

Cheikh Fall

New York

The writer is the interim director of the Street Vendor Project, a nonprofit organization.